The most complete, up-to-date comparison of AI video generation models — which model, via which API, at what price, and how fast.
190
stars
30
commits
Aug 27, 2026
updated
ai-video
ai-video-generator
awesome
awesome-list
generative-ai
hailuo
hunyuanvideo
image-to-video
kling
ltx-video
luma
muapi
pika
runway
seedance
sora
text-to-video
veo
video-generation
wan
README
Awesome AI Video Models 
The most complete, up-to-date comparison of AI video generation models — which model, via which API, at what price, and how fast.
Unlike other lists that just dump links, this one answers the question developers actually have: "I need to generate video — which model do I pick, and where do I call it?" Every model below is mapped to the APIs that serve it, with indicative pricing, speed, and max resolution/duration.
💡 Prices are per second of output video (retail API rates verified July 2026) and move fast — always confirm against the provider. Latency is a rough "time to first result" at default settings.
📺 Best AI Video Generator (API) in 2026 (Quality, Price, Uncensored, Editing) →
Related Projects
- awesome-uncensored-ai-video-models — Filtering-, access-, and licensing-focused companion catalog for local and hosted video model variants
- MuAPI video-generation docs — Use the models compared here through one unified API.
- MuAPI model playground — Test video models before choosing an integration.
- MiniMax-H3-API — Python SDK for MiniMax H3 text-to-video, image-to-video, and first/last-frame video generation.
- awesome-minimax-h3-prompts — Prompt gallery with runnable MiniMax H3 video examples.
- Wan-3.0-API — Python SDK and MCP server for Wan 3.0-compatible video generation.
- Wan-3.0-Prime-API — Python SDK and MCP server for the higher-fidelity Wan 3.0 Prime tier.
- Open-Generative-AI — curated hub of open generative-media tools and pipelines
- Text-To-Video-AI — generate a finished video from a text prompt end-to-end
- Open-AI-Micro-Drama-Generator — multi-scene AI micro-drama pipeline
- Veo-4-API — Python wrapper for Google Veo 4
- Seedance-2-API — Python wrapper for ByteDance Seedance 2
- awesome-seedance-2.5-api-prompts — prompt library for Seedance 2.5
- ai-creator-academy — free curriculum teaching creators how to monetize the models compared in this list
- Flux-3-Dev-API — Python wrapper for Black Forest Labs' FLUX 3 (Dev variant) — text-to-image, image-to-image, text-to-video, image-to-video
- awesome-flux-3-api-prompts — FLUX 3 API guide, prompts, and parameters
- wan-3.0-comfyui — ComfyUI custom nodes for Wan 3.0 text-to-image, image edit, text-to-video, and image-to-video via MuAPI.
- Gemini-Omni-1.1-Flash-API — Python SDK and MCP server for Google's newly announced Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash update.
- Video-Utilities-API — compare Muapi video upscaling and video-to-audio post-production endpoints.
Contents
- Commercial models (closed, API-only)
- Open-source models (self-host or API)
- Task-specific: image-to-video
- Avatar & talking-head models
- Real-time & interactive video
- Video upscaling & enhancement
- Benchmarks & leaderboards
- How to choose
- Where to run them (API providers)
- Contributing
Commercial models (closed, API-only)
| Model | Maker | Best for | APIs | Price / sec | Max res / length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seedance 2.5 | ByteDance | 🏆 Best overall quality | MuAPI | ~$0.05–0.25 by resolution | 4K / up to 30s, 50 refs | Multimodal references, multi-scene continuity, audio-video in one pass; also ships dedicated Video Edit and Spicy (uncensored) endpoints |
| Veo 3.1 | Realism + native audio | Gemini API, MuAPI | $0.15 Fast · $0.40 Quality (Lite $0.03–0.05) | 1080p/4K / ~8s | Independent editorial consensus "leads the field" on scene consistency/prompt understanding | |
| Sora 2 | OpenAI | Coherence, long shots | OpenAI API | $0.10 Std · $0.30–0.50 Pro | 720p–1080p / ≤25s | ⚠️ API sunsets Sept 24, 2026 — don't build against it near/after that date |
| Kling v3.0 | Kuaishou | Motion, prompt adherence | MuAPI | ~$0.10 (up to $0.20 w/ audio); ~$0.075 via resellers | 1080p / 5–10s | Omni variant (reference-driven multi-image editing/generation) and dedicated Pro Motion Control endpoint ($0.16/sec, complex cinematic camera work) available |
| Runway Gen-4.5 / Aleph | Runway | 🏆 Best video-to-video editing (outside benchmark) | Runway API, MuAPI | $0.12 (Turbo $0.05) | 1080p / ~10s | Aleph is the model most cited as the outside comparison point in editing benchmarks; Act-Two ($0.07/generation) does performance transfer (facial/motion) onto a static character instead |
| Seedance 2.0 | ByteDance | 🏆 Best value at scale | MuAPI | ~$0.025 Mini · ~$0.05 Pro | 1080p / 5–10s | Cheapest production-grade video API in independent pricing research |
| PixVerse V6 | PixVerse | Flexible low-cost tiers | MuAPI | $0.033 (360p, no audio) – $0.150 (1080p, w/ audio) | 1080p / ~5–8s | Price genuinely scales with resolution, unlike flat per-generation competitors |
| Vidu Q3 Pro | ShengShu/Vidu | Cheap high-quality generation | MuAPI | ~$0.04/generation | 1080p | Independently ranks #2 on outside quality lists |
| Gemini Omni Video Edit | 🏆 Best any-to-any editing | Gemini API, MuAPI | Flat $2.40 (720p/1080p) / $3.60 (4K) | 4K | Natively multimodal — rewrites visuals + audio jointly in one pass; a real MuAPI differentiator | |
| Hailuo 2.3 / MiniMax H3 | MiniMax | Character motion; H3 Open ships open-weights | MuAPI | $0.045 (768p) · ~$0.017 (512p) | 1080p / ≤10s | 30–90s generation; H3 Open variant is open-weights, listed separately below |
| Luma Ray 3 | Luma | Fast iteration, HDR | Luma API | ~$0.21 (HDR ~2×) | 1080p+HDR / 5–10s | Per-second billing |
| Pika 2.2 | Pika | Effects, stylization | Pika API | ~$0.05 | 1080p / ~5s | Cheapest closed model |
| Wan 2.6 / 3.0 | Alibaba | Cheapest native 1080p (2.6); next-gen (3.0) | MuAPI | $0.05/sec (2.6) | 1080p | Both API-only (not open-weight, unlike Wan 2.2 below); Wan 3.0 not live yet as of Aug 2026 |
Open-source models (self-host or API)
| Model | Maker | License | Best for | APIs | Self-host VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wan 2.2 | Alibaba | Apache-2.0 | Quality leader; T2V+I2V+edit in one | MuAPI, self-host | ~24GB+ |
| MiniMax H3 Open | MiniMax | Open weights | Native stereo audio, general open-source video gen | MuAPI | ~24GB+ |
| HunyuanVideo 1.5 | Tencent | Custom OSS | Natural motion & physics | MuAPI, self-host | ~40GB+ |
| LTX-2.5 | Lightricks | OpenRAIL | Fast; native 4K + synced audio (latest release, supersedes 2.3) | MuAPI | ~12GB+ |
| CogVideoX | Zhipu / THUDM | Apache-2.0 | Research, fine-tuning | self-host | ~18GB+ |
| Mochi 1 | Genmo | Apache-2.0 | High-fidelity motion | self-host | ~24GB+ |
| Open-Sora 2.0 | HPC-AI Tech | Apache-2.0 | Fully open pipeline + weights | self-host | ~24GB+ |
| SkyReels-V3 | Skywork | Custom OSS | Cinematic / film-style shots | self-host | ~24GB+ |
| NVIDIA Cosmos | NVIDIA | NVIDIA OpenModel | World models, robotics/sim | self-host | ~40GB+ |
| AnimateDiff | Community | Apache-2.0 | Add motion to SD image models | self-host | ~10GB+ |
Task-specific: image-to-video
Most models above also do image-to-video (I2V). Strongest I2V specifically:
- Kling 3.0 — best all-round I2V motion
- Seedance 2.0 — best price/quality for I2V
- Wan 2.2 — best open-source I2V
- Luma Ray 3 — fastest I2V for iteration
Avatar & talking-head models
Portrait/presenter video from a photo or actor + script. These bill by subscription or per-minute credits (not per-second like the raw generators), so the pricing column names the model, not a rate.
| Tool | Maker | Best for | API | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HeyGen | HeyGen | Studio avatars, dubbing | Yes (+ streaming SDK) | Credits / subscription |
| Synthesia | Synthesia | Enterprise training videos | Yes | Seat / subscription |
| D-ID | D-ID | Real-time talking portraits | Yes (streaming) | Per-minute credits |
| Hedra | Hedra | Expressive character audio→video | Yes | Credits |
| Tavus | Tavus | Conversational video agents | Yes | Per-minute |
| Captions (Mirage) | Captions | Fully generated AI actors | Yes | Credits / subscription |
| Hour One | Hour One | Scalable presenter video | Yes | Subscription |
Open-source alternatives: OmniHuman-1, LivePortrait, EchoMimicV2, MuseTalk, OmniAvatar (self-host, see repos).
Real-time & interactive video
Emerging category — sub-second/streaming generation for games, live avatars, and interactive worlds.
- Decart (Lucy) — real-time world/video generation
- Krea Realtime 14B — open-weights real-time generation
- LongLive — long-duration real-time generation
- PixVerse — fast interactive generation
- Hunyuan-GameCraft / world models — playable generated environments
Video upscaling & enhancement
Post-process generated (or real) footage — upscale, interpolate, denoise.
| Tool | Type | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Topaz Video AI | Commercial | Highest-quality upscale + interpolation |
| FlashVSR | Open source | Fast video super-resolution |
| Video2X | Open source | Free upscaling (waifu2x/Real-ESRGAN) |
| REAL Video Enhancer | Open source | Interpolation + upscaling GUI |
Benchmarks & leaderboards
Don't trust a maker's own demo reel — check independent evals before committing:
- VBench / VBench-2.0 — 16-dimension automated quality benchmark
- Artificial Analysis Video Arena — Elo-style human-preference leaderboard across commercial + open models
- Video-Bench — human-aligned evaluation suite
How to choose
- Best overall quality → Seedance 2.5, or Veo 3.1 for scene consistency/prompt understanding (Sora 2 works too, but its API sunsets Sept 2026)
- Best value at scale → Seedance 2.0 Mini (~$0.025/s) or PixVerse V6 (from $0.033/s, scales with resolution)
- Best uncensored / unrestricted → Seedance 2.5 Spicy, MiniMax H3 Open, or LTX-2.5
- Best editing (video-to-video) → Gemini Omni Video Edit (any-to-any, visuals+audio jointly) or Runway Aleph (most-cited outside benchmark)
- Best motion/camera control → Kling v3.0 Pro Motion Control (dedicated endpoint) or Runway Act-Two / Wan2.2 Animate (performance transfer)
- Fully open / self-hosted → Wan 2.2 (quality), MiniMax H3 Open, or LTX-2.5 (speed)
Where to run them (API providers)
Aggregators that expose many of the above behind one API/key:
- MuAPI — unified API across image + video models (Kling, Veo, Seedance, Hailuo, Wan, and more), one key, one billing
Native APIs (single-vendor): Google Gemini (Veo), OpenAI (Sora), Runway, Luma, Pika, MiniMax.
Contributing
PRs welcome. When adding a model, keep the table columns filled — a row without provider + price + speed isn't useful. New models go in the correct table (commercial vs open-source) and stay sorted by relevance.
Maintained alongside Open-Generative-AI. Found it useful? ⭐ the repo.
Contributors
Anil-matcha
30 commits
Similar repos
The most complete, up-to-date comparison of AI video generation models — which model, via which API, at what price, and how fast.
190
stars
30
commits
Aug 27, 2026
updated
ai-video
ai-video-generator
awesome
awesome-list
generative-ai
hailuo
hunyuanvideo
image-to-video
kling
ltx-video
luma
muapi
pika
runway
seedance
sora
text-to-video
veo
video-generation
wan
README
Awesome AI Video Models
The most complete, up-to-date comparison of AI video generation models — which model, via which API, at what price, and how fast.
Unlike other lists that just dump links, this one answers the question developers actually have: "I need to generate video — which model do I pick, and where do I call it?" Every model below is mapped to the APIs that serve it, with indicative pricing, speed, and max resolution/duration.
💡 Prices are per second of output video (retail API rates verified July 2026) and move fast — always confirm against the provider. Latency is a rough "time to first result" at default settings.
📺 Best AI Video Generator (API) in 2026 (Quality, Price, Uncensored, Editing) →
Related Projects
- awesome-uncensored-ai-video-models — Filtering-, access-, and licensing-focused companion catalog for local and hosted video model variants
- MuAPI video-generation docs — Use the models compared here through one unified API.
- MuAPI model playground — Test video models before choosing an integration.
- MiniMax-H3-API — Python SDK for MiniMax H3 text-to-video, image-to-video, and first/last-frame video generation.
- awesome-minimax-h3-prompts — Prompt gallery with runnable MiniMax H3 video examples.
- Wan-3.0-API — Python SDK and MCP server for Wan 3.0-compatible video generation.
- Wan-3.0-Prime-API — Python SDK and MCP server for the higher-fidelity Wan 3.0 Prime tier.
- Open-Generative-AI — curated hub of open generative-media tools and pipelines
- Text-To-Video-AI — generate a finished video from a text prompt end-to-end
- Open-AI-Micro-Drama-Generator — multi-scene AI micro-drama pipeline
- Veo-4-API — Python wrapper for Google Veo 4
- Seedance-2-API — Python wrapper for ByteDance Seedance 2
- awesome-seedance-2.5-api-prompts — prompt library for Seedance 2.5
- ai-creator-academy — free curriculum teaching creators how to monetize the models compared in this list
- Flux-3-Dev-API — Python wrapper for Black Forest Labs' FLUX 3 (Dev variant) — text-to-image, image-to-image, text-to-video, image-to-video
- awesome-flux-3-api-prompts — FLUX 3 API guide, prompts, and parameters
- wan-3.0-comfyui — ComfyUI custom nodes for Wan 3.0 text-to-image, image edit, text-to-video, and image-to-video via MuAPI.
- Gemini-Omni-1.1-Flash-API — Python SDK and MCP server for Google's newly announced Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash update.
- Video-Utilities-API — compare Muapi video upscaling and video-to-audio post-production endpoints.
Contents
- Commercial models (closed, API-only)
- Open-source models (self-host or API)
- Task-specific: image-to-video
- Avatar & talking-head models
- Real-time & interactive video
- Video upscaling & enhancement
- Benchmarks & leaderboards
- How to choose
- Where to run them (API providers)
- Contributing
Commercial models (closed, API-only)
| Model | Maker | Best for | APIs | Price / sec | Max res / length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seedance 2.5 | ByteDance | 🏆 Best overall quality | MuAPI | ~$0.05–0.25 by resolution | 4K / up to 30s, 50 refs | Multimodal references, multi-scene continuity, audio-video in one pass; also ships dedicated Video Edit and Spicy (uncensored) endpoints |
| Veo 3.1 | Realism + native audio | Gemini API, MuAPI | $0.15 Fast · $0.40 Quality (Lite $0.03–0.05) | 1080p/4K / ~8s | Independent editorial consensus "leads the field" on scene consistency/prompt understanding | |
| Sora 2 | OpenAI | Coherence, long shots | OpenAI API | $0.10 Std · $0.30–0.50 Pro | 720p–1080p / ≤25s | ⚠️ API sunsets Sept 24, 2026 — don't build against it near/after that date |
| Kling v3.0 | Kuaishou | Motion, prompt adherence | MuAPI | ~$0.10 (up to $0.20 w/ audio); ~$0.075 via resellers | 1080p / 5–10s | Omni variant (reference-driven multi-image editing/generation) and dedicated Pro Motion Control endpoint ($0.16/sec, complex cinematic camera work) available |
| Runway Gen-4.5 / Aleph | Runway | 🏆 Best video-to-video editing (outside benchmark) | Runway API, MuAPI | $0.12 (Turbo $0.05) | 1080p / ~10s | Aleph is the model most cited as the outside comparison point in editing benchmarks; Act-Two ($0.07/generation) does performance transfer (facial/motion) onto a static character instead |
| Seedance 2.0 | ByteDance | 🏆 Best value at scale | MuAPI | ~$0.025 Mini · ~$0.05 Pro | 1080p / 5–10s | Cheapest production-grade video API in independent pricing research |
| PixVerse V6 | PixVerse | Flexible low-cost tiers | MuAPI | $0.033 (360p, no audio) – $0.150 (1080p, w/ audio) | 1080p / ~5–8s | Price genuinely scales with resolution, unlike flat per-generation competitors |
| Vidu Q3 Pro | ShengShu/Vidu | Cheap high-quality generation | MuAPI | ~$0.04/generation | 1080p | Independently ranks #2 on outside quality lists |
| Gemini Omni Video Edit | 🏆 Best any-to-any editing | Gemini API, MuAPI | Flat $2.40 (720p/1080p) / $3.60 (4K) | 4K | Natively multimodal — rewrites visuals + audio jointly in one pass; a real MuAPI differentiator | |
| Hailuo 2.3 / MiniMax H3 | MiniMax | Character motion; H3 Open ships open-weights | MuAPI | $0.045 (768p) · ~$0.017 (512p) | 1080p / ≤10s | 30–90s generation; H3 Open variant is open-weights, listed separately below |
| Luma Ray 3 | Luma | Fast iteration, HDR | Luma API | ~$0.21 (HDR ~2×) | 1080p+HDR / 5–10s | Per-second billing |
| Pika 2.2 | Pika | Effects, stylization | Pika API | ~$0.05 | 1080p / ~5s | Cheapest closed model |
| Wan 2.6 / 3.0 | Alibaba | Cheapest native 1080p (2.6); next-gen (3.0) | MuAPI | $0.05/sec (2.6) | 1080p | Both API-only (not open-weight, unlike Wan 2.2 below); Wan 3.0 not live yet as of Aug 2026 |
Open-source models (self-host or API)
| Model | Maker | License | Best for | APIs | Self-host VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wan 2.2 | Alibaba | Apache-2.0 | Quality leader; T2V+I2V+edit in one | MuAPI, self-host | ~24GB+ |
| MiniMax H3 Open | MiniMax | Open weights | Native stereo audio, general open-source video gen | MuAPI | ~24GB+ |
| HunyuanVideo 1.5 | Tencent | Custom OSS | Natural motion & physics | MuAPI, self-host | ~40GB+ |
| LTX-2.5 | Lightricks | OpenRAIL | Fast; native 4K + synced audio (latest release, supersedes 2.3) | MuAPI | ~12GB+ |
| CogVideoX | Zhipu / THUDM | Apache-2.0 | Research, fine-tuning | self-host | ~18GB+ |
| Mochi 1 | Genmo | Apache-2.0 | High-fidelity motion | self-host | ~24GB+ |
| Open-Sora 2.0 | HPC-AI Tech | Apache-2.0 | Fully open pipeline + weights | self-host | ~24GB+ |
| SkyReels-V3 | Skywork | Custom OSS | Cinematic / film-style shots | self-host | ~24GB+ |
| NVIDIA Cosmos | NVIDIA | NVIDIA OpenModel | World models, robotics/sim | self-host | ~40GB+ |
| AnimateDiff | Community | Apache-2.0 | Add motion to SD image models | self-host | ~10GB+ |
Task-specific: image-to-video
Most models above also do image-to-video (I2V). Strongest I2V specifically:
- Kling 3.0 — best all-round I2V motion
- Seedance 2.0 — best price/quality for I2V
- Wan 2.2 — best open-source I2V
- Luma Ray 3 — fastest I2V for iteration
Avatar & talking-head models
Portrait/presenter video from a photo or actor + script. These bill by subscription or per-minute credits (not per-second like the raw generators), so the pricing column names the model, not a rate.
| Tool | Maker | Best for | API | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HeyGen | HeyGen | Studio avatars, dubbing | Yes (+ streaming SDK) | Credits / subscription |
| Synthesia | Synthesia | Enterprise training videos | Yes | Seat / subscription |
| D-ID | D-ID | Real-time talking portraits | Yes (streaming) | Per-minute credits |
| Hedra | Hedra | Expressive character audio→video | Yes | Credits |
| Tavus | Tavus | Conversational video agents | Yes | Per-minute |
| Captions (Mirage) | Captions | Fully generated AI actors | Yes | Credits / subscription |
| Hour One | Hour One | Scalable presenter video | Yes | Subscription |
Open-source alternatives: OmniHuman-1, LivePortrait, EchoMimicV2, MuseTalk, OmniAvatar (self-host, see repos).
Real-time & interactive video
Emerging category — sub-second/streaming generation for games, live avatars, and interactive worlds.
- Decart (Lucy) — real-time world/video generation
- Krea Realtime 14B — open-weights real-time generation
- LongLive — long-duration real-time generation
- PixVerse — fast interactive generation
- Hunyuan-GameCraft / world models — playable generated environments
Video upscaling & enhancement
Post-process generated (or real) footage — upscale, interpolate, denoise.
| Tool | Type | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Topaz Video AI | Commercial | Highest-quality upscale + interpolation |
| FlashVSR | Open source | Fast video super-resolution |
| Video2X | Open source | Free upscaling (waifu2x/Real-ESRGAN) |
| REAL Video Enhancer | Open source | Interpolation + upscaling GUI |
Benchmarks & leaderboards
Don't trust a maker's own demo reel — check independent evals before committing:
- VBench / VBench-2.0 — 16-dimension automated quality benchmark
- Artificial Analysis Video Arena — Elo-style human-preference leaderboard across commercial + open models
- Video-Bench — human-aligned evaluation suite
How to choose
- Best overall quality → Seedance 2.5, or Veo 3.1 for scene consistency/prompt understanding (Sora 2 works too, but its API sunsets Sept 2026)
- Best value at scale → Seedance 2.0 Mini (~$0.025/s) or PixVerse V6 (from $0.033/s, scales with resolution)
- Best uncensored / unrestricted → Seedance 2.5 Spicy, MiniMax H3 Open, or LTX-2.5
- Best editing (video-to-video) → Gemini Omni Video Edit (any-to-any, visuals+audio jointly) or Runway Aleph (most-cited outside benchmark)
- Best motion/camera control → Kling v3.0 Pro Motion Control (dedicated endpoint) or Runway Act-Two / Wan2.2 Animate (performance transfer)
- Fully open / self-hosted → Wan 2.2 (quality), MiniMax H3 Open, or LTX-2.5 (speed)
Where to run them (API providers)
Aggregators that expose many of the above behind one API/key:
- MuAPI — unified API across image + video models (Kling, Veo, Seedance, Hailuo, Wan, and more), one key, one billing
Native APIs (single-vendor): Google Gemini (Veo), OpenAI (Sora), Runway, Luma, Pika, MiniMax.
Contributing
PRs welcome. When adding a model, keep the table columns filled — a row without provider + price + speed isn't useful. New models go in the correct table (commercial vs open-source) and stay sorted by relevance.
Maintained alongside Open-Generative-AI. Found it useful? ⭐ the repo.
Similar repos
Contributors
Anil-matcha
30 commits